Hortalotarsus

Hortalotarsus (etymology uncertain; probably "tarsus of a young bird"?[1]) is a dubious genus of extinct sauropodomorph from Early Jurassic rocks of South Africa.

Hortalotarsus
Temporal range: Early Jurassic, Sinemurian
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Clade: Dinosauria
Clade: Saurischia
Suborder: †Sauropodomorpha
Clade: †Plateosauria
Clade: †Massopoda
Family: †Massospondylidae
Genus: †Hortalotarsus
Seeley, 1894
Type species
Hortalotarsus skirtopodus
Seeley, 1894

Discovery and naming

The type species, Hortalotarsus skirtopodus was named by Harry Seeley in 1894. According to Broom (1911), "Originally most of the skeleton was in the rock, and it was regarded by the farmers as the skeleton of a Bushman, but it is said to have been destroyed through fear that a Bushman skeleton in the rock might tend to weaken the religious belief of the rising generation."[2] Seeley however, states that most of the skeleton was lost by a failed attempt to free it from the rock by using gunpowder.[3] Some partial leg bones were salvaged.

Hortalotarsus was subsequently regarded as either a synonym of Massospondylus[4] or a valid genus belonging to Anchisauridae.[5][6] Galton and Cluver (1976) as well as Galton and Upchurch (2004), however, designated this genus a nomen dubium.[7][8]

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References
  1. http://hellenisteukontos.opoudjis.net/2016-06-28-what-does-hortalotarsus-mean-in-latin-or-greek/
  2. Broom R. 1911. On the dinosaurs of the Stormberg, South Africa. Annals of the South African Museum 7:291-308.
  3. Seeley, H.G. (1894). "LIII.—On Hortalotarsus skirtopodus, a new Saurischian fossil from Barkly East, Cape Colony". Annals and Magazine of Natural History. 6. 14: 411–419. doi:10.1080/00222939408677828.
  4. M. R. Cooper. 1981. The prosauropod dinosaur Massospondylus carinatus Owen from Zimbabwe: its biology, mode of life and phylogenetic significance. Occasional Papers of the National Museums and Monuments of Rhodesia, Series B, Natural Sciences 6(10):689-840
  5. B. F. Nopcsa. 1928. The genera of reptiles. Palaeobiologica 1:163-188.
  6. R. Steel. 1970. Part 14. Saurischia. Handbuch der Paläoherpetologie/Encyclopedia of Paleoherpetology. Gustav Fischer Verlag, Stuttgart 1-87
  7. P. M. Galton and M. A. Cluver. 1976. Anchisaurus capensis (Broom) and a revision of the Anchisauridae (Reptilia, Saurischia). Annals of the South African Museum 69(6):121-159
  8. P. M. Galton and P. Upchurch. 2004. Prosauropoda. In D. B. Weishampel, P. Dodson, and H. Osmolska (eds.), The Dinosauria (second edition). University of California Press, Berkeley 232-258.


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